Banished from the Homeland

This is the true story of my mother, who was born in Estonia in 1921. She had a wonderful life until 1939, when Stalin annexed the country and established a reign of terror. He soon sent thousands of innocent people to labor camps in Siberia. The Nazis invaded in 1941 and controlled the country until the Soviets returned. My mother's family urged her to flee in August of 1944 to avoid being used as a sex slave by the rapidly advancing soldiers of the Red Army. She fled alone to Germany, narrowly escaped death many times, and depended on the kindness of strangers. When Stalin's Iron Curtain came down at the end of the war, she realized she could not go back home and emigrated to Canada to start a new life. She showed a supernatural courage that can inspire us all, but she could never forget her beloved homeland and longed to return. The story of my mother and her family is a symbol of what happened to millions of Eastern Europeans whose voices were silenced until the end of the Cold War.